Turan Aksoy: A Portrait: Restless

Turan Aksoy is at Pi Artworks Galatasaray with his solo exhibition titled A Portrait: Restless between the dates February 19th - April 19th, 2013.

The focus on the social problems and the state of predetermination in Aksoy's works titled "Chaotic but Sterile" (2009) and the effort to define the current time through the spaces and the convictions in his exhibition "Dust and Rush" (2012), have turned into the individual's aim to form a social portrait through the individual's traumas and conflicts with the family, religion, state institutions in his last series.

Turan Aksoy emphasizes the traces of pressure, harassment and torture by the social institutions on the individual; through the absurd and inharmonious relationships between the object and spaces representing the institutions bearing that social memory. In his previous works and exhibitions, he creates impact through the irrational links and a story, which can be perceived as implicit and personal by the audience. The exhibition is being transformed into a three layer social narrative, which consists of the individual, society and the artists who create the artwork. The representative elements circulating between portrait that is personal, and flagpole that is public, take the audience into a conflict area, which also seem contradictory. Social portrait is contextualized with its strong connection to the social memory.

Turan Aksoy was born in Erzincan in 1965. He studied painting at Gazi University, received his MFA and PhD at the University of Central England in UK. His selected solo shows include Glowing Things (2010) and Dust and Rush(2012) at Pi Artworks, participated in the Temporary Harassment exhibition, part of Istanbul 2010 Portable Art Project in 2009. His works also presented at the international art fairs by Pi Artworks such as Art Dubai and Contemporary Istanbul in 2012. His selected public collections include Istanbul Modern and Taviloğlu Collection.